The Last Samurai (2003)

In dubbing this film 'Dances with Samurai',
Tom Cruise's latest attempt to score himself an Oscar at last,
I feel the critics have sold The Last Samurai short.
Instead of the self-indulgent, testosterone fuelled, one man
show I was expecting, I found myself gripped by a moving,
intelligent and deeply heartfelt film.

Tom Cruise gives a very fine performance as
Captain Nathan Algren, a disillusioned US army veteran who,
fresh from slaughtering savages in post Civil War America,
finds himself employed by the manipulative advisers to the
Emperor of Japan to suppress a rebellion by the Samurai, the
elite Japanese warriors who now find themselves opposed to
the increasing Westernisation of their nation. Algren claims
he'll kill anybody for $500 a month, yet is haunted by visions
of the cruelties practised on the Native Americans by himself
and his comrades, and is reduced to drowning his miseries
at the bottom of a whisky bottle.

Forced to lead his bumbling, untrained Japanese
troops into battle against the Samurai, lead by the daunting
rebel Katsumoto, Algren is defeated and taken prisoner. Taken
to Katsumoto's remote village home in the mountains, where
he must remain until the snows melt, he gradually learns to
appreciate the value of the customs and beliefs of his captors,
their innate nobility and discipline, their adherence to a
strict and moral code of honour. And so begins his gradual
conversion to the Way of the Samurai.

The initial clash of cultures evokes a fair amount
of gentle humour, which I hadn't been expecting, as Algren struggles
to learn Japanese, fight like a Samurai and, er, wear a dress. And
of course there is also the burgeoning romance between Algren and
Katsumoto's sister-in-law, Taka, whose husband Algren himself killed
in battle. Fortunately, like an elegant Japanese dance, the romance
is all in the longing glance, the tentative touch, the significant
gesture and gentle word: for it to have proceeded further, Hollywood
style, would have seemed really wrong.

Like Algren, we too quickly come to admire the mighty Samurai,
who engage the imagination instantly. Of course, they were always
going to be way cooler than the imperial forces (they wear armour
and fight with swords and bows and arrows so they must be),
but all the same, the scene in which they emerge from the misty
forest on horseback to face the rifles of Algren's army, clad
in ornate armour complete with magnificent horned helmets, is
utterly breathtaking, and could have come straight from The
Lord of the Rings.

In fact a lot of The Last Samurai reminded me of
Peter Jackson's trilogy - and not just because the film was
also shot in New Zealand. Like The
Two Towers and The Return
of the King, the battle scenes are incredible, featuring
quite a bit of bloodthirsty sword on sword action and some
awesome cavalry charges - which of course are now old hat
to the stunt horses of New Zealand, who must be forming lines,
charging and rolling over dead in their sleep by now. Come
to think of it, Katsumoto's beautiful grey horse did look
suspiciously like Shadowfax.

However, also reminiscent of Tolkein's work is the theme
of an ancient and noble way of life threatened by new dark
forces against which resistance is futile. <SPOILER>But
sadly for the Samurai there can be no triumphant ending, and
in the scene towards the end of the film where the noble warriors
make one last stand against the Emperor, only to be mown down
to a man by machine guns, we are literally seeing traditional
values destroyed by modern technology. </SPOILER>

Whilst Tom Cruise throws himself heart and soul into his role,
and was clearly deeply affected by the experience, credit must
also go to his co-star Ken Watanabe, who gives the film spiritual
depth and gravity as rebel leader Katsumoto. Calm, dignified
and powerful, he brings to the part the same sense of regal
nobility that Yul Brynner and Chow Yun Fat bring to the role
of the King of Siam in The King and I and Anna and
the King. Billy Connolly, in the role of Irish Sergeant
Zebulon Gant, adheres to the Sean Connery school of playing
an Irishman: keep your Scottish accent but say things like 'to
be sure' a lot and hope the Americans don't notice. It's rather
nice to see Timothy Spall playing a posh bloke for a change:
translator, photographer and all-round Japanese expert Simon
Graham, another character we warm to as he undergoes a significant
change of values due to the influence of the Samurai.

The scenery is breathtaking and the recreation
of Katsumoto's home town is picture perfect, complete with
achingly lovely pink Japanese blossom trees. Hans Zimmer's
score provides an evocative sonic backdrop, whilst the pace
of the film, in which moments of calm dignity are punctuated
by frenetic action (and some fantastic martial arts sequences,
incidentally), befits the Samurai's twin goals of contemplation
and warfare.

One suspects that the true story behind the
demise of the Samurai was not so black and white, but if there
has been a Hollywood gloss applied to the story, it would
appear to have been done for worthy reasons. The Last Samurai
is an enormously moving, thought provoking film that engages
the audience from start to finish. A fantastic achievement
- let's hope it garners Tom Cruise the Oscar he so deserves.